are you a christian author with a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! ferential. welcome to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada and around the world. ahead on "cnn newsroom," president biden reveals plans to reposition u.s. troops in response to russia's own buildup near ukraine. we're live in moskow and kyiv for the latest. china issues a warning after a casual encounter in honduras. we'll have details and a live report from taipei. plus the u.s. east coast

braces for a bomb cyclone. we're monitoring the storm and we'll bring you all the developments. the u.s. military says russia's troop buildup near ukraine is at a level not seen since the cold war. the u.s. has been sending millions of dollars worth of aid to ukraine and 8,500 american forces are now on alert and getting ready to move. here's what was u.s. president joe biden said about it on friday. >> i'll be moving u.s. troops to eastern europe and the nato countries in the near term. >> russian troops have been amassing along ukraine's border for months. on friday the pentagon said the signs of the russian force is unprecedented in modern times and is capable of striking inside ukraine at any time with

horrific consequences. melissa bell is standing by in kyiv. nathan, let's talk about this. the u.s. doubling down on the assessment of russia's capability to invade the whole of ukraine. we heard biden there about the timing of sending troops, all the while urging diplomacy, but moskow so far is sending mixed messages about those prospects. >> yes. as president biden raises the alarm about the potential for russian incursion into ukraine, russian president vladimir putin is doing what he does best, acting presidential, staying above the fray and biding his time. the day after the u.s. and nato delivered their written responses to russia's security demands, president putin visited a cemetery in a publicly televised ceremony to lay flowers on the anniversary of the end of the siege of le

leningrad in the second world war and laid flowers on a grave. on friday he chaired a session of the security council but the kremlin gave us a very anodyne read out of what was said there, and president putin hasn't directly addressed the crisis itself, remaining quite silchbt on the matter. his current secretary, sergei lavrov, did say russia did take a negative view of the answers that russia had received although did say there could be some common ground found on some of the secondary issues like arms control, troops in europe. but on the big issue, the big issue of whether or not nato could open a path for membership to ukraine, the u.s. and russia stayed very far apart. but the real issue here is what putin decides to do. and at this point he's remained silent on that subject and the kremlin has said he's read the letter from the u.s. and nato,

he's studied it and he'll give his answer in due course. he has the initiative. the ball is in his court to respond. >> all right, thanks. and turning to melissa from the ukrainian perspective, more criticism from president zelenskiy of the u.s. response, not just the schism of how imminent an invasion might be but also the timing of sanctions. >> reporter: that's right. we know the two, washington and kyiv, have long been divided on that question when sanctions should be put in. essentially the idea of bringing them in after an invasion by russia of ukraine, the point of that would simply to be to protect europe having sacrificed ukraine. so a fair amount of distance there. but also as you say a distance on the question of the level of threat. with president zelenskiy saying yesterday repeating what his

defense minister had told parliament the day before, that the ukrainian assessment the threat hasn't actually changed that much since the spring of last year when we heard the defense minister speak. we are hearing him say the russian president is biding his time. that seems the be the clever strategy at the moment since those divisions between washington and kyiv only become more exposed. have a listen to what president zelenskiy had to say yesterday. >> i'm the president of ukraine. i'm based here, and i think i know the details much deeper than any other president. it's important the president should know what the situation is from me, not from intermediaries. >> and of course the point that he made buzz ukrainians and ukrainian leadership understand the context the russian build up is happening, this is war that's

gone on since 2014. they understand the context of it better than washington. the other advantage in vladimir putin waiting and playing that longer game is that divisions begin to appear between european allies and the united states as well. vladimir putin had a phone call with emmanuel macron yesterday, and nathan's right we hadn't yet heard from the russian president own voice his response, but we do have a sense what he believes from the read out of that phone call. he explained reflecting what sergei lavrov said these last few days that the american and nato proposals don't go far enough, don't address that central concern of russia they want to see a guarantee nato will not expand further eastward, something that nato allies are refusing to budge on. but we also heard vladimir putin say that he hoped and he believed there could be some room for progress within that normandyfer mat revised on wednesday after being paused in 2019.

so russia, ukraine, france and germany coming together. it was that format that allowed the current cease-fire to be found in 2015. the russian president expressing his hope those talks could be revived and some kind of deescalation could be found. it could be by looking down that path he's able to play a longer game still. >> really appreciate you having both on this developing story. melissa bell in kyiv and nathan hodge in moskow. thank you so much. britain is urging its businesses and other organizations to prop up their defenses against possible cyber attacks from russia. a government watchdog says it doesn't see any specific threats related to the crisis in ukraine, but says groups in russia have tracked records of weaponizing cyberspace in similar situations. earlier this month a number of ukrainian government websites were hit, a move kyiv blamed on moskow. in the u.s. the department of homeland security says a russian cyber attack against the u.s. isn't out of the question depending on the u.s. and nato response to a possible ukraine

invasion. all right, let's talk about russia flexing its muscle in cyberspace with james sullivan, the director of cyber research and joins us from london. thank you so much for being here with us. so any russian act of war on ukraine would likely take place not just on the ground of course but in cyberspace as well. in fact, it's been going onto a greater or lesser extent for years. but along with the buildup of russian troops on the border, have the russian siebler attacks against ukraine have been ramping up as well? >> good morning. well, thanks for having me. obviously a very serious situation we have at the moment, and we all really hope it deescalates in the coming days and weeks. onto the topic of cyber attacks i think an important point here is that russia is not going to install a new government or in invade ukraine through cyber attacks alone. so that's very important.

we should move away from that hyperbole. there isn't going to be one big cyber attack the tipping point. i think what we're looking at here is death by a thousand cuts, so lots of low level attacks which essentially build up to have a detrimental effect on the confidence in the ukrainian government. it's really psychological operations, and that's really the type of attack that we've seen in ukraine since 2014. >> so basically the aim is just to kind of destabilize, to make ukraine look like a failed state? is that it? >> exactly. so let's look at the history of destructive and disruptive cyber attacks by russia and its affiliates. and this is really important. we can't attribute everything to the russian state, but the links are clear with organized crime, like minded nations, et cetera. and at least since 2014 we've seen cyber attacks on energy

sector, transport sector, state finance, on businesses. really the main aim here is to undermine the confidence in the ukrainian government, it degrade public trust in state institutions and also the industry. >> so you're saying there won't be, you know, one massive cyber attack, but surely if russia actually attacked with ground forces there would be these types of cyberspace campaigns against -- against military targets and things like that. how would those actually be waged, and what effects might they have? >> absolutely. so it's really important to break these up into the different types of cyber attacks to understand the nuance here. i think you could divide them into three types of attacks here, three types of cyber campaigns. number one you've got intelligence gathering by cyber espionage. this goes on and the west does it, of course. this is age-old intelligent

gathering, this time using data in cyberspace. and that will benefit russian foreign policymaking because they will get information they need. the second you refer to are the operation disruptions between ukrainian partners. what this does is tries to achieve a specific cyber effect at the time. let's say you've got some planes flying overhead and you want to disrupt radar systems, you might want to take communication systems down at a specific time it will benefit your land troops, your air troops. so that's a specific type of cyber attack. and the third one i'm moving onto is one i think is actually the most relevant right now which are these low level attacks which are going on and on and on since 2014 to really undermine confidence and trust in our systems, in our industry. and i think you referred at the top the u.k. release.

we've seen how this has a global effect as well. >> so is there anything that ukraine maybe with the help of its allies can do to thwart or prevent these attacks? or is it sort of already too late? is there a way to maybe mitigate them by going old school, going analog? >> very good question. first of all, i don't think we're going to be able to take everything off-line. unfortunately, the world is too advanced at this stage to do that. if i take you to what just happened most recently so the most recent phase of what's been happening in ukraine. we had a bunch of messages that were put up on ukrainian websites saying be afraid but expect the worst. it's almost like me going into a building and just spraying graffiti on the front. if you lift up under the hood there was actually worse things done. in addition to the web site defacements, government systems were wiped for data, you know, important files were deleted.

systems couldn't boot up. what can we do about this? i think you hinted at it in your question. you can't solve these things in 24 hours. this is why a cyber community goes on and on about good cyber hygiene, good cyber security. so onto the solutions. it probably is a bit too late. but we're talking here about identifying and protecting critical efforts, segmenting your i.t. from your technologies. there's technology which actually helps operate the system and i.t. behind it. you need to split those, patch regularly, have good incident response protocols, understand the threat. and what you just said there, move off-line, you know, some things do need to be done off-line. i'm not saying this means pen or paper, but, you know, you have to have some systems that are air gapped so they can't be accessed in this way. >> yeah, a lot of those warnings

applicable here in the u.s. as well as we hope we don't get similar attacks as well. james sullivan, thank you so very much for your expertise on this. really appreciate it. >> have a good day. thank you. the u.s. house committee investigating the attack on the capitol is issuing more subpoenas. it's seeking documents anddes from 14 republicans tied to the trump campaign's efforts to subvert the electoral college. they submitted fake certificates declaring trump the winner in seven states he actually lost. we've learned the committee has actually subpoenaed judd deer, a former white house spokesman believed to have knowledge of donald trump's behavior before and after the riot. law professor kim waley explains why we may seeing those subpoenas now. >> the united states supreme court last week rejected donald trump's claim that these documents or some of these documents were privileged. so 700 documents went from the

national archives to the january 6th committee. and they're reading them and finding out how to connect some of these dots. and these seven fake electors just so people understand, and we know going around in our every day life you cannot use a counterfeit $20 bill. you can be arrested and go to jail for that. these are counterfeit documents to take the election not from the democrats, not from joe biden but from the american people. there are crimes that are involved here. the question is can the january 6th committee get to the bottom of this mountain of information. these are not people close to donald trump. these are people with families that have to hire expensive lawyers to go through this. they will get information. can they get what the american people need before the mid-terms? parts of the u.s. are getting hit by dangerous winter storms. i'll have details from the cnn weather center to come. plus covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the decline in the u.s., but the

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well, you're looking at dramatic images of a bridge collapse in pittsburgh friday. at least ten people were hurt. none of the injuries are life threatening. rescue teams used ropes to rappel down more than 100 feet to reach some of the victims. now ironically it happened just hours before u.s. president joe biden was scheduled to speak in pittsburgh about the nation's infrastructure. he said it's further proof the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill was desperately needed. >> across the country there are 45,000 bridges in poor condition. it's just simply unacceptable. that's why your governor and your members of congress, your mayor have been saying for years we have to do something about this. i've talked about it every time i've come to pittsburgh. and we finally got it done. a bipartisan infrastructure law including the largest investment in our nation's bridges since the -- since the eisenhower put

together the interstate highway system. >> the bridge was inspected last september and received a poor condition rating. public safety officials saying an investigation into the collapse is under way. dangerous heavy snow and winds are threatening the east coast of the u.s. this weekend. at least 10 million people across ten states are under blizzard warnings. officials are cautioning of potential power outages and dangerous travel conditions. joining me now is meteorologist derek van dam. derek, as i was driving into work here in atlanta we are starting to get snow, which is fairly usual, but what we're seeing here nothing compared to what's heading up north. >> we felt the very backside of this storm, the cold air behind it creating a few show showers even in atlanta. but what you're looking at here is a classic, explosive strengthening low pressure system along the east coast. we call this a bomb cyclone

because of how quickly it strengthens, and theal cooing of the cloud top you can see going from purple to red. that is actually the towering c cumulo nimbus clouds. it will bring strong winds, heavy snow, coastal flooding, power outages and certainly travel disruptions with over 4,000 flights already canceled for the day today. let's get to the brass tacks and talk about time line and peak intensity of this storm. this is not a buffalo or albany, new york storm but more of a philadelphia to new york to boston storm. this is more coastal but still impacting some of the largest metropolitan areas. philadelphia 4 to 8 inches for you, and then in boston where we have the potential to break records, so his storric snowfall possible up to 2 feet or locally higher amounts. the peak intensity will last right through this evening.

here's a look at over 65 million americans impacted by this winter storm, and covering ten coastal states, and then the low pressure system right now you can see the snow crashing down into the coastal areas of the carolinas. there's the slight to moderate snow moving into new york, picking up in intensity over eastern long island, rhode island, eastern connecticut as well as the eastern sections of massachusetts including boston getting hit heavy this morning, deteriorating the road conditions very quickly, and you can see the largest snowfall totals in boston will potentially be broken today from the storm. >> unbelievable. we'll be following that throughout the day. derek van dam, thanks so much. covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the decline across the u.s., but according to john hopkins university more than 2,200 americans are still dying every day. a new study finds that a majority of americans think that it's inevitable covid-19 will affect most of the country.

but if that's the case, what's an acceptable level of infection? here's what america's top infectious disease expert had to say. >> when you have over 2,000 deaths, 150,000 hospitalizations, and you have people who are now getting infected to the tune of somewhere around 700,000 a day, we're not there yet. where we want to be is that sufficient control, a level of control that does not disrupt us in society, does not dominate our lives, does not prevent us to do the things that we generally do under normal existence. that would be a level of infection, but more importantly concentrating on the severity of the disease, hospitalizations and deaths, that fall within the category of what we generally accept. we don't like it, but we accept it with other respiratory viruses. >> and dr. fauci says he's keeping a close eye on the omicron spin-off variant as it becomes the dominant cause of

cases in some parts of the world. but right now he says there's no reason for alarm. meanwhile, the white house says 60 million households have requested free covid-19 rapid tests so far. it's part of the biden administration's program to mail out more than half a billion tests to americans around the country. brazil is reporting a record number of daily coronavirus cases for the third straight day. the country had nearly 270,000 infections on friday compared to 228,000 the day before. and sweden says it won't recommend covid vaccines for children age 5 to 11. the health agency says there's no clear benefit for those kids to get the shot. meanwhile one german official says omicron infections are lower than anticipated due to the covid measures the nation has already enforced. so for more on that let's bring in cnn's scott mcclain who joins us from london. so, scott, what's behind this apparent german success story? >> reporter: well, not sure we can call it a success story just

yet, but it is being framed in a pretty odd way. german health officials as you mention saying that the number of new infections are actually lower. covid passes for bars and for restaurants, but while they say -- the german health menster says that omicron is under control, new infections are reaching record highs. they hit a new record on thursday, and they're also warning of pressure on hospitals and icus. what they have not seen is a spike in new deaths, but that may come later. the german health officials are worried about the number of unvaccinated people. that number is four times higher in germany than it is, say, in the u.k. and so they are really trying to push the vaccine on people. right now the parliament is debating a bill that would follow in austria's lead by mandating almost everyone in the country get vaccinated though they wouldn't be set to vote on

that until late march at the earliest. meanwhile russia is also seeing a surge of omicron infections in moskow, for instance, new infections amongst children in particular is sitting hard. new infections amongst kids in moskow are up -- are 14 times higher than they were just two weeks ago. hospitalizations are also surging there as well. now, right now health officials in -- in russia are calling on the different regions of the country to return to remote learning wherever they can. right now russia vaccinates kids 12 and older on a voluntary basis. other countries in europe vaccinate children much younger than that, but now sweden as you said earlier says they will not recommend that. so the swedish health authorities says while there may be a benefit to society overall, they are not convinced that there is a benefit to the children themselves because, of course, most covid infections

amongst children are quite mild. they do say they're going to monitor the rollout in other countries, keep their eye on the side effects and it's possible they could change their minds. >> an interesting perspective for sure. scott mcclain, thank you so much. earlier i spoke with physician dr. andre campbell and asked him if now's the right time to ease covid restrictions across the u.s. here he is. >> it is interesting what is going on in europe, and i'm hoping that in the future we can certainly see that things will move in that direction. what's encouraging here in the united states is that the numbers on the east coast and new york, in the northeast and washington area is beginning to go down. and the places that are turning a corner have a higher rate of vaccination. the better vaccination rate is the more protection you have against the virus. and as we move forward we hope we can get that number up now. only 60% of people have two, and

30% of people have three. we still have a long ways to go so we can make more of those parallels, those european countries that are turning a corner. we are beginning to reduce restrictions, but we still have a fair amount of stress on our health care system here in san francisco. >> we'll bring you the full interview with dr. campbell next hour. coming up after a short break why germany is taking a much softer line toward moskow as the threat of a russian invasion looms over ukraine. plus growing anger in britain over boris johnson's party gate scandal. how many are furious the prime minister broke the covid rules they sacrificed to follow. stay with us. neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. with hepatitis c i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret i was cured. i faced reminders of my hep c every day.

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and welcome back to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada and around the world. this is "cnn newsroom." nato members in europe still hope diplomacy in the threat of severe sanctions will dissuade vladimir putin from invading ukraine. downing street says british prime minister boris johnson is expected to discuss the crisis with the russian president in the coming days. french president emmanuel macron spoke withput putin friday. but germany has been taking a softer approach. the nordstream 2 natural gas pipeline from russia isn't yet operational but weighing heavy in germany's response to the russian threat. that pipeline is part of the reason why some nato countries are questioning germany's approach to the crisis. fred pleitgen reports. >> reporter: as russia continues amassing troops at ukraine's

borders the u.s. and its allies have stepped up deliveries of defensive weapons to kyiv including armor piercing anti-tank missiles. notably missing, though, nato partner germany. the germans omoffering 5,000 helmets for the ukrainians facing russian tanks. >> translator: the german government has said very clearly that we will not send any lethal weapons or arms deliveries to conflict areas because we do not want to fuel these conflicts further. >> reporter: but germany is coming off a record year for arms exports, top client egypt despite its difficult human rights track record. ukraine's ambassador to berlin says his country is not happy. >> i think that they have to reconsider, and they have really start helping us with the weapons of defensive type which we need right now. >> reporter: some nato countries are questioning just how reliable an ally berlin is when it comes to confronting russian

aggression especially after the head of the german navy recently had to resign after saying vladimir putin deserves respect. when dealing with russia germany is still haunted by its past, says -- from the german marshal fund in burerlin. >> they're afraid of sending weapons to ukraine and those weapons being used against russians given the number of russians killed during world war ii, but let's be honest there were huge amounts of ukrainians victims as well during world war ii. >> reporter: millions of ukrainians were killed as hitler's army overran what was then the ukrainian part of the soviet union. nearly the entire jewish population there wiped out. but germany also has hard economic reasons for going soft on russia. its dependence on russian gas and the nordstream 2 pipeline, the $11 billion undersea link between the two countries. while berlin recently claimed

the pipeline was a purely economic project at least now the government says a russian invasion of ukraine would have an impact. >> translator: if there is renewed aggression we have the full bandwidth of measures including nordstream 2. >> reporter: the u.s. has long urged berlin to use nordstream 2 which is not yet certified for gas transit as leverage to deter moskow. now the state department says if russia invades, the project is dead. >> if russia invades ukraine one way or another nordstream 2 will not move forward. >> reporter: but currently the germans are still very much moving forward with mordstream 2. in fact, a german subsidiary was just found trying to speed up certification here in europe. all this as berlin says it remains firmly in the u.s.' corner and says that it will support massive sanctions against russia if there is a further invasion of ukraine. fred pleitgen, cnn, berlin.

>> london police say their investigation into downing street parties is now being aided by material from the u.k. cabinet office. they're probing whether prime minister boris johnson and others broke covid lock down rules. for many the gatherings at number 10 are bringing back memories of the sacrifices they made during those difficult times. >> reporter: spring 2020 about two months into england's strict nationwide lockdown, the death toll mounting so quickly, mass graves are dug on the outskirts of london. >> to obey those rules -- >> reporter: the prime minister consistently urges the public to abide by covid restrictions. may 15th, this photo is snapped in the downing street garden. johnson allegedly hosting a wine and cheese party for his team. johnson's government has denied wrongdoing claiming this was a work meeting. bu reaved mother ema jones says

it's hypocrisy. >> the date just jumped out at me. the 15th of may 2020 which is an incredibly sad day for us. >> reporter: that day her 18-year-old, ruby, died of blood cancer at home. >> after ruby died we opened up our front garden and invited people to come by, but they had to do it in their household bubbles. >> reporter: because funeral attendance was severely limited this is how loved ones said good-bye to ruby. >> you made the sacrifice of not having a funeral for your daughter. >> it was very, very hard but we didn't begrudge that. but now to realize that the people who set the rules weren't following them is absolutely infuriating. >> the british government needs to -- >> reporter: may 20, 2020, police are out to enforce restrictions and break up illegal gatherings. >> we need to disperse this group and go about your business. >> reporter: but in the prime minister's garden a party is allegedly taking place after his top secretary invited more than

100 staffers to "make the most of the lovely weather and bring your own booze." johnson now admits to his attendance and has apologized but says he believed the byob event was a work function. >> mr. speaker, i want to apologize. >> reporter: that spring he followed the rules until his dying breath isolating at home. his son told us -- >> you have someone who is so dedicated to the people he loves, and then the prime minister just doesn't care? >> reporter: in the fall of 2020 lobby met the prime minister with other bereaved families to share his story of grief. >> i don't think the man can maintain his position as prime minister because i think he's betrayed us all so deeply. >> reporter: for many the accusation their government broke covid rules to party is

unforgivable. the inquiries into the alleged breaches first by the cabinet office and now the police are set to make it unforgettable. cnn, london. coming up, a rare impromptu meeting between the u.s. vice president and taiwan's vice president could add fuel to tensions between washington and beijing over taiwan. that's ahead. stay with us. uhhh... how long does credit repair take? i don't know, like 10 years. what? are you insane? what's a good credit score? go. 600. maybe if you're trying to pay thousands extra in interest rates. cut the confusion, get started with a free credit evaluation at creditrepair.com.

the world is saying good-bye to -- a seven day wake for the prominent zen buddhist monk and peace activist has ended. disciples have been paying their respect since his body lay in state, and on saturday thousands trailed his coffin as it made its way to a cremation site.

his ashes will be scattered at his teaching centers around the world. china is sending a direct warning to the u.s. supporting taiwan independence could spark a military conflict. tensions flared after a rare encounter thursday at the inauguration of the new president of honduras. vice president kamala harris had a casual conversation with her taiwanese counterpart. u.s. house speaker nancy pelosi also held a virtual meeting with vice president william li friday. according to taiwan's presidential spokesperson they discussed security, economy, governance, specifically taiwan's potential cooperation between congress and the taiwan legislature. joining me now from taipei is senior cnn international correspondent will rippley. will, china's ambassador to the u.s. had some direct comments. so take us through what was said and your read on the significance and timing? >> reporter: ever ins the united

states normalized relations with china part of that deal was acknowledging that taiwan at least on paper was officially part of china, even though this self-governing democracy has its own government, military, it operates autonomously. but china views taiwan as illegitimate and could be taken back by force if necessary. and they say one of the red lines is the united states engaging in official government level interactions with a government that beijing considers illegitimate. so you have two events that have happened in the last two days that are undoubtedly highly irritating and perhaps even provocative in the eyes of beijing. the first was on thursday. you mentioned that very conversation in honduras at the inauguration of their new president between the u.s. vice president daurs kamala harris a

counterpart. it lasted about a minute according to it the taiwan spokesperson, and apparently he thanked vice president harris for u.s. support of taiwan, and harris says they talked about some other policy issues regarding migrants in that region where they were attending this inauguration. but then on friday there was actually a much more substantive high level meeting between the u.s. speaker of the house nancy pelosi and taiwan's vice president li. it was a virtual meeting after the taiwanese delegation landed in san francisco, i'm told. and it lasted as i said half an hour. they talked about security, economy, governmentsch they talked about pelosi supporting taiwan engaging in international platform like the world health organization, which beijing has firmly opposed. they talked about human rights in china, a huge red line for beijing just days before the opening ceremonies of the 2022 olympics as they prepare to try

to have this soft power victory. so that leads us to this interview with npr where the chinese ambassador to the u.s. spelled out probably more clearly than i've heard a chinese diplomat say in quite some time what would happen from the beijing perspective if this u.s.-taiwan relationship continues to deepen. >> if, you know, the taiwanese authorities emboldened by the united states, you know, keep going down the road for independence, it most likely will involve china and the united states, the two big countries in a military conflict. >> support for taiwan is one of those rare issues in washington, kim, that seems to unite republicans and democrats. saying friends in the democratic world should stand together. taiwan is counting on its friendships. it doesn't have formal diplomatic ties but has friendships with big powerful democracies and big powerful militaries including the united

states of course. these two encounters friday's virtual meeting with pelosi, thursday's rare brief but highly symbolic presidential encounter could really add fuel to tensions over washington and beijing between taiwan. >> will rippley in taipei, thanks so much. coming up on "cnn newsroom" the women's final of the australian open is under way and a hometown hero is hoping to make history. i'll have a live report from melbourne next. stay with us. for a shave as quick and easy as washing your face. the reality of living with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease... mes you might be dealing with a lot of symptoms... gut-focused entyvio is made for u. entyvio is the only medicine just for uc and cd that is gut-cused. tyvio has helped many patients achieve long-term relief and remission. it may help you, too.

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get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! anti-vaccine mandate protesters have arrived at parliament hill in ottawa, canada, ahead of a planned rally on saturday. the so-called freedom convoy was started to protest the vaccine requirement for truck drivers entering canada from the u.s. even though the majority of canadian truckers are vaccinated. the united states has a similar policy for truckers coming in from cap canada. officials warn the demonstration may draw far right figures who are known to incite violence, and because of that authorities promise there will be a large police presence.

organizers insist saturday's demonstration will be peaceful. the women's final of the australian open is under way right now. hometown hero ashley barty is taking on collins in a sold out arena. joining me now is tennis expert ben rofinberg. >> she was down 5-1 quickly, the american danielle collins for the second set and really putting more pressure on barty and testing her nerve as she gets closer to the finish line what would we a potentially historic win for her here. >> give me a sense of the smooert with the crowds so solidly behind their hometown hero there. >> it's been a positive supportive atmosphere for barty. she hasn't dropped a set. she hasn't played many close

matches or had too many close moments. getting nervous than before but it's been a happy ride. one person ill-advisedly heckled collins during her second set and poking the bear a bit, and collins know can't feed off that and is happy to be antagonistic and fired up and poking the bear than this point australia would want in the hash. >> it started off on such a controversial note of course with the whole djokovic affair, not being able to get into the country. how has the tournament sort of gone on since all that controversy? >> yes. definitely sort of a calm after the storm feeling for the australian open. so much drama and build up in the djokovic debacle and that resolved. and they've been able to leave that in the past and focus on the tennisch it probably did

help all of the attention on djokovic took all the pressure off of her. with that sort of attention being spent on djokovic it was clearing the field for barty to be a bit more under the radar. and she's broken back in the four and five second set. >> excellent. we will keep track of what's going on there. really appreciate you giving us the latest there from melbourne, australia. thank you so much. appreciate it. well, the cat's finally out of the bag. the bidens have a new family pet. the first lady says she saw the gray tabby at the campaign stop in 2020 after it jumped on stage. the two shared an immediate bond. the feline's name, willow, even refers to jill biden's hometown in pennsylvania. willow now lives with commander, a purebred german shepherd puppy, that the bidens adopted in december last year. and hopefully the white house

will be big enough for the both of them. well, that wraps this hour of "cnn newsroom." all of you back in just a moment with more news. please do stay with us.

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♪ hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber. ahead on "cnn newsroom" -- >> i'll be moving u.s. troops to eastern europe and the nato countries in the near term. >> tensions in eastern europe continue to grow as president biden lays out his plan to reposition u.s. troops, we're live in kyiv and moscow with the latest. plus, millions of americans in the nor